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Battle Lines
Drawn: Potrero residents battle local planning boards
By Miriam Raftery
The Alpine Sun
Editor’s note:
This is the second in a three part-series on Blackwater USA’s
proposed military-style training camp in rural Potrero. Part two
documents residents’ fight with local governing boards to block
the proposed project. Part three, which will run next week, will
note congressional scrutiny Blackwater has faced for its Iraq
War contracts.
POTRERO — Potrero residents, including a former Potrero
Planning Board member and a newly elected member of the board,
have voiced concern that the Blackwater project is being
“fast-tracked” through the County Department of Planning & Land
Use (DPLU) process under new streamlined procedures.
A letter to Alyssa Maxson at the DPLU from John Cowdery,
president/CEO of Jones & Stokes Associates, observes that an
expedited review “has been a priority communicated to us by the
client and the County,” adding that, “The project applicant and
we as its selected company/firm have agreed to participate as
the pilot project for the County’s Business Process
Reengineering.”
A spokesperson for Supervisor Dianne Jacob denied that
Blackwater has received any special treatment. “That would be
illegal,” said the employee, who declined to be named. The
employee noted that the streamlining procedures were created
after ample public input and were in response to complaints that
projects from home remodels to major housing developments were
taking four years for approval. The goal is to reduce approval
time on major projects to 22 months. Jacob’s representative
deferred calls to Chandra Waller, director of the DPLU. Waller
did not return calls.
A conflict of interest question was raised regarding
the DPLU’s relationship with Blackwater. Lori Spar was listed
with the California Bar Association as an attorney with
Stephenson Worley et al, a San Diego law firm representing
Blackwater, on July 31, 2006. Now Spar has surfaced as a land
use/environmental planner for the DPLU.
Claudia Anzures, chief deputy at the County Counsel’s
office, said there is no law to prohibit a planner from being
assigned to a project promoted by a company the employee once
represented. However, she said she had spoken with Spar and been
assured that Spar did not actually work on the project in
question.
A July 31, 2006 memo from Blackwater Vice President
Brian Bonfiglio sent to “attorney Lori Spar” and others,
however, invited Spar to an August 3rd meeting at Nasland
Engineering for an agenda that included a “potential fatal flaw
discussion” of the Blackwater West project in Potrero.
Don Bauder’s article in the San Diego Weekly Reader and
documents shown to this reporter indicate members of the DPLU
met privately with Blackwater officials as early as May 2005,
but that Potrero citizens did not learn of the project until
Oct. 12.
Jan Hedlun was elected in November to serve on
Potrero’s planning board. “I am a lamb in a lion’s den,” Hedlun
said. “It appears the county really wants this. They’re pushing
this through quicker than anything I’ve ever heard in my entire
life, and I don’t know why.”
Carl Meyer, a former Potrero planning board member,
concurs that the project is being rushed through the planning
process. He criticized Potrero planning board members for being
“pro-development about anything out here. They ignore the public
will on all subject matters,” he said, adding that several
members were appointed, not elected.
According to Hedlun, she was not informed that she had
won election or that she was entitled to vote at the December
meeting. She called other planning board members, but did not
call chair Gordon Hammers, whose wife was seriously ill at the
time. Hammers published an article generally favorable to the
project in the Potrero Hotline, but declined to allow Hedlun to
publish a critical editorial. According to Hedlun, Hammers
sought to restrict her piece to one column and refused to allow
inclusion of letters obtained by Potrero resident Tina Brown
from residents of Moyock, North Carolina, where Blackwater is
headquartered.
Hedlun later published her article in the Backcountry
Messenger, quoting Moyock residents who complained of traffic,
noise and more with regard to Blackwater. “They don’t play by
the rules,” Sherry Motes of Moyock warned. “They are a very
powerful enemy.”
Moyock resident Juanita Krause told of skulls and
crossbones posted across from her subdivision’s development
after a complaint was made to Blackwater. She observed that
Blackwater’s project had grown from small firing ranges to “a
whole city… Once their foot’s in the door, there’s no stopping
them.”
Supporters of the project
Potrero Planning Board Chair Gordon Hammers defended
his support for the project.
“I think it’s good for the community,” he said. “It provides
jobs. I think that it will improve the general economy of the
community and as a result, improve property values.” Hammers
contended that arguments against the project “have absolutely no
rhyme or reason” and are based on misunderstanding of the
project’s scope.
He cited Blackwater projections that the company hopes
to employ 50 to 60 people, of whom he predicted at least 70
percent will be residents of the Potrero area, a community with
poverty rates higher than the national average.
Hammers denied taking any contributions from Blackwater,
its lobbyists or principles.
Blackwater has hired high-powered lobbyist Nicole Clay, who has
previously represented the San Diego Padres, Chargers, and the
San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, to make its case to
lawmakers.
Potrero encompasses portions of both Congressman Bob
Filner’s and Duncan Hunter’s districts. Neither office returned
calls for this article. One Potrero resident said he has been in
communication with Filner’s office, and that the representative
expressed concerns and urged citizens to attend meetings on the
issue.
However, a September 26, 2006 summary of a Blackwater
West Project Team Meeting, obtained by The Alpine Sun, states
that, “Congressman Hunter’s office has been fairly engaged,”
with the project team, specifically citing Blackwater lobbyist
Clay.
Hunter met with and accepted donations from Blackwater
top executives in 2004, shortly after the Fallujah ambush. Soon
after, Blackwater obtained one of the war’s most lucrative
contracts — a $300,000-million project to guard senior U.S.
officials in Iraq.
Bonfiglio noted that in Moyock, Blackwater built a
church, supported Boy Scouts and offered mentoring programs for
local youngsters. He pledged to find needs within Potrero that
Blackwater could fill, should the project be approved.
Luisa Wildey, who lives two miles from the proposed
project, initially opposed Blackwater’s plan but now supports
it. “I appreciate anyone who is honest enough to be a good
neighbor,” she said at the recent planning board meeting. Wildey
added that she feels grateful to Blackwater for offering to
“open its doors” for the community in case of wildfire.
Other residents, however, spoke against Blackwater’s
shelter-in-place fire protection strategy. “I wouldn’t be caught
dead in that box canyon,” one observed dryly.
Citizens rally against
Blackwater
According to Meyer, sentiment in Potrero is
overwhelmingly against the project, with only around 35
residents favoring it. Bonfiglio contends that since 300 people
signed a “Save Potrero” petition opposing Blackwater’s project,
the remaining 550 residents likely support the project.
But a visit to the Potrero Post Office and General Store found
residents almost unanimously opposed to the project.
At a contentious March 8 Planning Board meeting in
Potrero, nearly every hand shot up in the standing-room-only
audience after Hammers asked who opposed the project. Yet when
board members were polled, seven indicated that they still
support the project, with only Hedlun opposed.
Hedlun accused Hammers of violating the Brown Act by
requiring members of the public to identify themselves before
addressing the board. She also criticized the board for failing
to publish minutes of recent meetings and suggested the December
vote could be illegal because minutes were not provided 72 hours
before the meeting with clear notice that a vote would be taken.
Hammers disputed the point.
A woman who the chair refused to recognize spoke out
anyway and revealed that she had sent a “cure and correct
letter” to Hammers demanding that the December vote in favor of
Blackwater’s project be nullified, on grounds that the chair had
refused to allow her to speak. The woman indicated that she
intends to go to court if the matter is not resolved to her
satisfaction.
Hammers revealed that he had denied a request from
environmental leader Duncan McFetridge, a leading opponent of
Blackwater’s project, to speak at the March meeting. He insisted
that there would be no time on the agenda for McFetridge to
address the board until May or June.
Hammers announced plans to hold a noise test on March
24th and said more shooters are needed. To date, a half dozen
citizens have signed up to “come out with shotguns and make all
the noise they can,” said Hammers, who restricted shooters to
only people with military or law enforcement experience. A local
hunter who said he passed a police-sponsored gun safety course
expressed dismay at behind barred from participating.
Many residents had harsher words for Hammers. “This is
a bogus test,” said one, noting that the test will not include
automatic weapons that Blackwater has indicated would be used at
its facility, which could have dozens of trainees at its
shooting ranges. No testing is planned to assess noise from an
evasive vehicular training track the length of ten football
fields.
Meyer plans to deliver petitions signed by over half
the town’s registered voters to Rep. Hunter and to Rep. Bob
Filner. “We also plan to send a petition to Henry Waxman,” said
Meyer, citing the Democratic Committee chair holding oversight
hearings into activities of Blackwater and other contractors.
Other groups are joining the battle. Bob Davis, a
member of the San Diego Peace & Justice Coalition, predicted
civil disobedience may be called for to halt the project.
Jeremy Scahill, author of “Blackwater: The Rise of the
World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army,” offers hope to
beleaguered Potrero residents. “Blackwater’s original plan
actually got defeated in North Carolina,” he recalled, noting
that the company had to move its planned facility to another
county after local citizens rallied to oppose the project.
“People were concerned about having militias there.”
Blackwater objects to the term mercenary and insists
that no mercenaries will be trained at its Potrero camp.
But Potrero resident June Archer remains concerned.
“They’re like terrorists, really,” she said. “What if one goes
nuts with the guns and our kids?”
Ultimately, the decision whether or to allow Blackwater
into the community will hinge not on opinions about the
company’s involvement in the Iraq War, said McFetridge, leader
of Save Our Forests and Ranchlands, believes. “This battle will
be won or lost on land use issues,” he said at a Descanso town
hall meeting on Blackwater. McFetridge added that he does not
believe the company can overcome legal hurdles to overturn
zoning ordinances and gain approval of its project.
He called for more groups to join in opposing
Blackwater’s plans.
“We win when we shine a light on the process,” he
concluded. “The more meetings we have, the more truth we get
out.”
 E-mail
Christy Scott
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